Fishing and Gardening

Meet the Falkons!

Sunset Valley isn’t the only city in my Sims 3 universe. Ladies and gentlemen… meet the Falkons!

New Pyroville is operational. It was a terrible tragedy for the Falkons, being usurped from their legendary home and being flung half a Sim world away. They’re strangers in this bizarre world of teleporting cars and kleptomaniacs, among other Sims who actually can think for themselves unlike their friends of old! At least they had the foresight to rename the town after themselves, despite the fact that historians still call it “Riverview” for some reason.

The thing is, the Falkons have had it with working “real” jobs. This new Sims universe offers them many opportunities to make money and survive without delving into the world of—ugh—carpools. Sure, there aren’t any “official” promotions. And worse still, money is always hard to come by at the beginning. But gosh darn it, Pyro and Pete are the FALKONS! If anyone can make money doing odd jobs and exploiting their neighbors, it’s these guys!

Speaking of Pete… he started out life many years ago as nothing more than a joke, and has wound up being an integral member of the Falkon family name. Pretty much the polar opposite of Pyro, he loves the outdoors and enjoys being social. For an explorer such as he, two of the best options available from the start are fishing and gardening.

Fishing

Fishing is a very easy skill to get underway. Pete already has a fishing pole on his person, which he pulls out of thin air whenever it’s time to get snag some scaly swimmers. There are many places to fish around the city, although they’re divided into four major categories: freshwater (i.e., lakes and ponds), saltwater (i.e., rivers and the ocean), the graveyard, and the science facility. Those last two are special places and are basically unavailable to him for the moment, but that will change soon.

At first, you have three options to get started with the fishing career: either you can take a class, just go fish, or watch TV about it. Because money is tight, the first one is out, though it probably the best option if you have the cash to burn. The Falkons’ crappy starting TV doesn’t get the Fishing Channel. Given the options, Pete hops in the car, drives over to Lost Willow Park.

Fishing automatically gains as long as Pete is in the act of fishing, but it’s slow. He gets bursts of experience gain when he catches something, but he’s Fishing level 0 at the moment, so the chance of him catching anything is about the same as Electronic Arts deciding against any Sims 3 expansion packs. Problem is, there’s not really that many more options; unlike most of the other skills, there is no book to give Sims that quick initial burst.

In short order, Pete hits Fishing level 1. He hasn’t caught anything yet, but achieving just that first level gives him two additional interactions at any place he can fish: he can Inspect For Fish at the water, or Choose Bait. The former is fairly self-explanatory, though Pete will only be able to detect fish he actually has a chance of catching. Choosing Bait allows Pete to pick something from his backpack to hopefully attract a specific fish, and increase his chance of actually catching it.

Pete doesn't know what bait is used to catch which fish, so he has to head down to the bookstore and buy some fishing books. Each book teaches him about a particular fish or two, telling him what their preferred bait is and where they are located. This information, once learned, is permanently etched in Pete’s Skill Journal. These books unfortunately do not increase the Fishing skill, but of course more intelligence against the prey will lead to its own reward.

Okay, let’s take a look at the Skill Journal for a moment. Pressing the J key, we see Pete’s sole skill, and we scroll down. Pete has read two books, and now knows the preferred habitat and bait of four breeds of fish. The bait seems rather arbitrary (alley catfish like cheese?), but they are consistent! Note that the better type of bait Pete uses, the better the fish Pete will catch. So, if he uses a perfect-quality wedge of cheese, he has a good chance of getting a perfect-quality alley catfish, although any bait will increase the chance of catching any fish.

The books can only be read when Pete hits a certain level of fishing. So, for now, he definitely won’t be learning all scaly secrets. Still, time passes, his Fishing skill goes up, and eventually learns the locations and preferred bait of all fish… including using other fish as bait!

Gardening

Many of the ingredients used to bait fish are available from the grocery store, but of course they’re only normal quality. To get better-quality ingredients—to catch better-quality fish—Pete will have to grow his own. He heads to the library and reads the level 1 gardening book, which not only instills basic knowledge in him, but it also magically gives him some seeds!

He heads home makes a small area for a garden. Note that Pete can actually plant his new seeds anywhere, and the sprouts can be moved around in Buy Mode in case you made a mistake. Planting them on the dirt as Pete has done here is not necessary, strictly speaking, but it gives a nice little visual effect.

Note that he has bought a sprinkler, positioned perfectly in the middle of the 5x5 garden plot. The sprinkler can be turned on at will, and if Pete had some Handiness skill, he could actually set it to turn on automatically every morning. The sprinkler is a nice, cheap way to save him some time.

Gardening is much more interactive than fishing: Pete doesn’t merely stand in the middle of the dirt patch. Well, I suppose he can, but he won’t get quality produce that way. I can issue the command Tend Garden, which will make Pete weed and water everything that needs it, as well as harvest any ripe crops. This, at least, is a hands-off way of keeping the garden in check.

To maximize productivity, however, Pete will want to fertilize the crops. This is sorta like using bait for your fishing exploits, but unlike bait, you don’t need a particular kind: the only thing that matters is the quality of whatever you’re using. For example, Pete can fertilize his new grapevine with his fish. If he uses a normal goldfish, it has the same effect as if he used a normal robot fish, or a normal alley catfish. But all of those would be trumped by an outstanding red herring, no matter what he was fertilizing. The only exception is the death fish: fertilizing anything with the death fish will kill it!

The produce can be sold to the grocery store, or simply sold in Buy Mode. Selling it to the grocery store does have one advantage: after enough sales, the grocery store will start selling all of its products with equivalent quality. For example, if Pete gets so good that he sells nothing but outstanding-quality produce, then the grocery store will start selling outstanding-quality food too!

A more immediate use for Pete’s crops is his own kitchen. High-quality ingredients lead to high-quality meals, although that’s tempered by his Cooking skill, of course: he’ll still burn down the stove if he’s got no Cooking skill. Better ingredients just make a good meal better.

Gardening is exponential in that way, in fact: fertilizing leads to better crops, which can be used for better fertilizer, which can be used for even better crops, etc. etc. All of Pete’s gardening work will lead to higher and higher Gardening skill gains, which also raise the base value of the produce—“value” defined as the money the crop is worth, as well as its quality rating. For even more money, Pete can use that high-quality produce as bait for his fishing expeditions!

Back to gardening proper… Produce is a decent money-maker in addition to the aforementioned benefits, but the true strength of the skill appears once Pete hits level 6. At that point, he can start looking for special, rare seeds for secret plants. This includes the Money Tree, which grows cash if well cared for (and high-value bills if not!); the Life Fruit plant, which makes the consumer of the fruit younger; and the Death Blossom, which gives you fruit that are essentially “Get out of death free” cards.

The seeds for these plants are a little tough to spot. They’re always lying on the ground, and the most valuable seeds are lying farthest from the center of the map. If you have the Collection Helper superpower, things get a lot easier.

Without the Collection Helper, you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled, although seeds tend to gravitate toward certain lots. For example, the seed for the Death Blossom tends to be seen around the graveyard.

All seeds start off being “unknown,” but once Pete plants one successfully, the seed will always be identified whenever he sees it out in the world. Pete can spot and collect these seeds anytime, but only when his Gardening hits a decent level can he successfully plant it.